GOP Senators Call Netflix Woke ‘Propaganda’ In CEO Hearing | EUROtoday

Senate Republicans grilled Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos throughout a Tuesday listening to in regards to the streamer’s bid to accumulate Warner Bros. movie and streaming divisions, calling the platform a “left-wing company” that has a historical past of pushing “wokeness” and “propaganda.”

The usually poised leisure exec was visibly flustered as he confronted a barrage of pointed questions on go-to GOP grievances round range, political bias and transgender illustration in entrance of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused Netflix of getting “long been a left-wing company” after a tangent about final Sunday’s politically charged Grammy Awards, which aired on rival media conglomerate Paramount Skydance’s flagship community CBS. Paramount Skydance can also be jockeying to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, although shareholders rebuffed its provide early final month

After highlighting Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings’ file as a high-spending Democratic donor, Cruz took goal at one among WB’s largest manufacturers, asking Sarandos how audiences might really feel “remotely confident” that the wedding between Netflix and Warner Bros. wouldn’t flip the 2 right into a joint “propaganda outlet.”

“CNN is already a dumpster fire,” the Texas senator stated of the information community, which has lengthy been in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs. “There is nothing resembling objectivity. Nothing resembling journalism anymore.”

In response, Sarandos burdened that Netflix is an leisure enterprise at its core, telling Cruz that when subscribers hearth up the streamer, “they are tuned in to be entertained” and pushing any political agenda could be a “bad business decision.”

Sarandos was additionally pressed to enter the tradition conflict enviornment by Missouri Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt.

Schmitt complained that “the overwhelming majority of your stuff right now is overwhelmingly woke, and it’s not reflective of what the American people want to see.”

“Both you and Netflix have made a habit of promoting DEI and wokeness,” he went on, saying the streamer’s content material “is synonymous for the modern phenomenon of race swapping both historical and real and fictional characters.”

Hawley, in the meantime, requested why Netflix platforms youngsters’s programming that “promotes a transgender ideology.”

Sarandos pushed again at each traces of questioning, telling the Show Me State senators, “We have a great deal of programming on Netflix for all left, right and center. We have state-of-the-art tools for parents to manage what their kids see on Netflix.”

Sarandos didn’t need to play protection for the complete listening to, as he took the chance to supply some touches of flattery, saying he believed President Trump’s scrutiny of the proposed $83 billion deal was truthful.

“I think the President, from my experience, has been nothing but interested in protecting and creating American jobs,” Sarandos stated, including that he believes the merger “would stand on its merits” on the finish of the day.

Trump appeared to sign he was siding with Paramount Skydance within the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery after the leisure monolith delivered a hostile $108.4 billion bid for the businesses in December.

Telling reporters any deal ought to hinge on guarantees to revamp CNN, Trump stated, “I don’t think the people that are running that company right now, and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue.”